Use Cases

What are the use cases?

We are addressing six different use cases. Ordered by increasing complexity, those are:

1. Japanese Knotweed: Being an invasive species in many areas, Japanese Knotweed is tracked by citizens exploring their environment. In short: A person walks around, spots Japanese Knotweed, and reports the finding to the system. Even shorter: Person = Sensor, mobile, single observed property (=location)

2. Butterflies on Mt. Olympus: Mount Olympus is famous throughout the world for its history, its cultural significance and its ecological treasures as well as its place in mythology. An entire Greek ecosystem is contained within its graded heights. This use case differentiates from the first slightly. A person walks around, captures (and releases) butterflies, but needs to track both butterfly and plant species for future research. In short: Person = sensor, mobile, three observed properties (butterfly on plant @location)

3. Ocean color: The "color" of the ocean (and any water body) is determined by the interactions of incident light with substances or particles present in the water. Ocean colour data is a vital resource for a wide variety of operational forecasting and oceanographic research, earth sciences, and related applications. The "color" of the ocean can be derived from satellite measurements. Nevertheless, verification by humans using colored comparison cards are useful for calibration and quality monitoring. This use case amends the first one, as the citizen "walks" (maybe better cruises) around and compares the water color with comparison cards. The type, make, etc. of these cards needs to be tracked to allow comparing observations. In short: Person = sensor, mobile, tool

4. Air quality @Oslo: Buses in Stockholm are equipped with a sensor observing a single physical property, atmospheric particulate matter, or particulate matter (PM). PM is microscopic solid or liquid matter suspended in the Earth's atmosphere and the deadliest form of air pollution due to their ability to penetrate deep into the lungs and blood streams unfiltered, causing permanent DNA mutations, heart attacks, and premature death. In short: Bus = sensor platform, mobile, single observed property

5. Weather station @home: The weather station in the own garden is in focus of this use case. Here, a stationary multi-sensor observes multiple physical properties.

6. Air quality @Oslo-2: Same bus as before, but this time the bus serves as a platform for more than one sensor. In short: Bus = Platform, multiple sensors, multiple observed properties.

Now that you are aware of the use cases, please continue reading the design decision page.